Halflings

Halflings are a diminutive humanoid race, smaller than Dwarfs and sharing many characteristics with the "Hobbits" of the Tolkien books, including a love of bright colors, grassy patures, and eating. Games Workshop Halflings tend to be a little on the silly/frivolous side - with more emphasis on the parties and eating and less emphasis on heroic traits.

Halflings are one of the oldest teams in Bloodbowl, having first appeared in 2nd Edition. Throughout the many editions of the rules, they have remained a fan favorite, but are generally regarded as among the weakest teams to play the sport.

According to the fluff, Halfling Teams are notorious for their technical deficiency. They are not particularly fast, nor are they particularly skilled throwers or catchers, nor are they particularly tough. Many Halfling Teams have been pounded into jelly on the pitch, rather than being successful.

One source of strength for the Halflings is their close relationship with nature, particularly with the Treemen (similar to Tolkien's Ents). The Treemen are among the strongest, most resilient players in the game of Blood Bowl, and the Halflings are the only team permitted under the current edition of the rules to hire more than one of them.

Another strength for the Halflings in previous editions was access to a unique Sideline character, the Halfling Master Chef . This unique individual allowed the Halfling team to steal other team's Re-Rolls and potentially use them for themselves. However, with the publication of the Competition Rules v6 , the Halflings are no longer allowed to permanently retain Halfling Master Chefs , nor are they the only team with access to them; the Halflings do receive a lower cost for inducement of the Halfling Master Chef .

The Halflings have, to put it politely, never been the best of Blood Bowl teams; it has been argued, however, that they have been better in previous editions due to the changes of various rules in the most recent edition of the game. That said, it is still possible to win with Halfling teams, though it requires a great deal of practice, and more than a little luck, to get the most out of a Halfling team. The Blood Bowl authors, as well as most experienced Blood Bowl Players, categorize Halflings as an Advanced Team .

Generally speaking, the Halflings do not reflect all of the negative traits suggested in their fluff, as they are just as agile as many of the other races in the game, and can gain most of the skills necessary for more accurate throws, catches, and the like. However, they are still relatively slow (with MV 5), and at Strength 2, they are fairly weak. Their low AV (6) makes them only slightly better protected than Snotlings (who have the lowest armor value in the game with AV 5.)

Most players would consider the Halflings to be an Agility Team . They are certainly not well suited to a Bashy Game. The addition of Treemen , and the common inducement of Star Players due to relatively low team values, can considerably stiffen their line up.

Famous Halfling Teams

The Greenfield Grasshuggers are probably the most famous Halfling team to date. They are most famous, fluff-wise, for having suffered some seventy five or more casualties in one particularly notorious game, which lead to the limit of only sixteen Blood Bowl players per roster in order to prevent future massacres. Another famous team, mentioned in occasional scraps of fluff, are the Iron Chiefs .

Miniatures

Games Workshop has produced several official Halfling and Treeman models for the Halfling team, as well as models for the three most famous Star Players associated with Halflings: Puggy Baconbreath, Deeproot Strongbranch and Naomi 'Solvanas' Cunningham. The 3rd edition version of the Halfling team is, as of this writing, still available on direct order from Games Workshop, as are the Puggy and Deeproot models.

Alternative miniatures that might be useful have been produced by several companies, most notably Gaspez Arts and Impact Miniatures. Gaspez Arts produces a Pygmy themed team, whilst Impact produces a race of "Deadlings" undead and "evil" Halflings of various styles. There was some talk of the production of a "Chaos Halfling" team by more than one third party manufacturer in years past, but thus far, none of these have yet been produced.